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In the last 100 years or so, technology has risen far beyond anyone’s expectations. DaVinci thought up a tremendous amount of inventions that may or may not have worked, but he would have never have come up with a device which projects the human voice through waves in the air half way around the world. What does stand out among technology and the advances made are three basic uses for technology that most if not all types fall into.

1. Information: Starting with movable type and into today’s age of information gathering, storing, and retrieval, technology’s greatest contribution is just that: information. Think of the trillions and trillions of words, numbers and facts that are transmitted every day. This would include every telephone/cell phone conversation as well as every file sent, read and used. Every scientific calculation, and every calculator calculation would be counted here as well. Not to mention every email, webpage and texting/instant message that is sent. Technology allows us to hold on to and disseminate information as we please. It kind of blows the mind when you realize that we probably could not have made these strides in technology if we did not have the technology that held on to the information needed to make it!

2. Entertainment: From the humble beginnings when someone discovered that you could take a camera and engineer it so that you had a long spool of separate film frames and take moving pictures, we have always sought to use technology to entertain us. Today, we have DVD’s, video games, digital cameras, mp3 players and the list goes on. Technology as entertainment is how we relax and unwind, even if that ‘relaxing’ means a shoot ‘em up fest with a group of friends. Better sound, better graphics, better interfaces, there will always be a market for consumers to improve their experience. It’s a fact that we thrive on our senses being bombarded with entertainment. Plus, when you combine certain technologies, you become the entertainer, not just the entertained!

3. Ease of Life: Did you ever stop to thank your alarm clock for waking you up? Or maybe your TV remote for allowing you to just sit there and enjoy the show? How about your water heater for hot water? We take a lot of things for granted that modern technology has provided. We are still a few years away from Marty McFly’s Nike shoes that lace themselves, but look at what we have! Our digital watch tells us the time without having to calculate the angle of the sun to the horizon! We no longer have to pick up each speck of dirt from the floor! Who would have thought that GPS devices would actually TELL us where to go? Thank goodness we don’t have to go to the barber for a close shave! Our lives have improved tremendously with every advent of technological advance, but we hardly ever consider it.

In some of the examples, different kinds of technology could actually fall in multiple categories. However, these three just seem to stand out. Maybe they design technology to ease your life while entertaining you with information! Everyone uses technology for different reasons, but we all have benefited from each advance. Who knows what could be waiting for us in the ‘future’!